


Gravity

by ijemanja



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-31
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-29 02:47:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5113328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ijemanja/pseuds/ijemanja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A dark and stormy night and, like always, Chell deals with the damage when she wakes up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gravity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [failsafe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/failsafe/gifts).



> An extra treat for Failsafe. Hope you enjoy!

The back door banged open in a gust of wind and Chell, head bent over a bowl of soup, put down her spoon and got up to latch it closed again. She paused in the open doorway, looking out across the fields, the towering stalks of grain rippling and swaying like the surface of a windswept sea. 

There was a storm coming in. She closed the door on the darkening sky and moved the brick she used as a doorstop into place against any further disturbances. She went back to her soup, and by the time she had finished rain was drumming on the roof, accompanied by low rumbles of thunder in the distance.

The wild weather didn't bother her; the small house was as secure as it could be. Night fell and the storm raged on. She went to bed. She slept.

A loud noise from outside woke her. Something crashed down, as if a tree branch - or perhaps a whole tree - had fallen. It was still dark, and still raining. There were no further noises from outside. Chell closed her eyes, willed her racing heart to slow. She would check on the damage in the morning.

It took her longer to sleep this time, and when she did, she slept fitfully, dreaming and half-waking and dreaming again. She dreamed of test chambers, flying through the air, the jolt in her bones as she hit the ground. The dreams didn't bother her. In her dreams, she was always back there. 

Tonight, though, there was a voice that followed her as she leapt and flew and fell. It echoed through her mind, familiar and confusing.

When she woke, the first rays of morning light were stealing around the edges of the curtain. She got up and followed the voice that had been disturbing her sleep all night out into the backyard.

The black walnut tree that stood at the bottom of the yard had not fared well, branches strewn about and a fresh, pale gash in the trunk where the largest had been torn away. In the midst of the leafy debris there was a small crater in the earth. Lying in the crater was a memory core.

"Well that was some good aiming!" 

She went and stood over him, looking down. 

"Complicated business unless you know what you're doing. Tricky, one might say. Re-entry, that is, you know, from space, because that's - that's where I've been. In space. Pretty much the whole time - in fact, the entire time - since we last hung out. Good times, good times, yeah. But, here we are now. Soooo. How have you been? I've been in space. Or did - I did, I mentioned that already, didn't I? Don't mind me. You're looking well though, aren't you? I mean, considering."

She bent and brushed aside some leaves before picking him up.

"No hard feelings, then, eh? Because I should tell you, I really got to thinking - a lot of time for thinking, you know, when you're in a vacuum..."

Wheatley kept talking as she returned to the house, where the door was banging in the wind. She hadn't put the brick in place to hold it back. She didn't put it there now, either. A brick was a useful object; she would find something else to do with it. It could be a building block, a projectile, a weapon.

Not a doorstop, though. She had something that would work just as well for that.

"-And it changes you, it really does. But the thing about it is..."

She put him down and stepped back. The large eye rolled around in its orb, taking in the surroundings. His new place, down here on the ground. 

"Very good, very good, like what you've done with the place." 

The eye shuttered, then opened again. A gust of wind swept through the open doorway, blowing Chell's hair around. The door didn't move, pinned back against the wall. 

"Oh now that's handy, isn't it? Glad to be of assistance. Anything I can do... You know I really, I _really_ feel like we're getting somewhere here. It's great, the old team back together. No, no, you don't have to say anything, just stand right there and - oh, okay she's going. Back outside. You go back outside, then, and I'll just wait here. Not going anywhere, me, don't worry. One of the benefits of being immobile, the whole not going anywhere thing."

He was still talking as Chell went back out and stood on the grass, closing her eyes as the wind came up again. She liked the air in her face. She could almost be falling.


End file.
